The Eagle Hotel is a historic former

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

in Wilmington,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

History

The first settlers in Wilmington arrived in 1836, favoring the land's abundance of streams and lumber. Thomas Cox

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted the land and constructed the first

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

in the region. Farmers traveled to the mill from long distances and required a place to stay while the corn and wheat was being ground. The land on which the hotel stood was purchased by David Lizer in 1836 and likely organized the project himself. The exact date when the building was constructed was not recorded, but it probably was built after the first general store in 1837. The building was likely used first to house goods for the mills in the region and may have served as a trading post.National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Eagle Hotel
/ref> Henry Brown, who owned the town's general store, build the two-story hotel across the street from the store on Water Street. The hotel is of no particular style, but is most strongly influenced by the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

movement. An addition was added to the hotel in the 1840s, which connected the hotel to the warehouse. This addition featured a storefront where independent businesses could rent space to sell their goods. The hotel business flourished following the connection of Wilmington to the

Chicago and Alton Railroad The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad , was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 a ...

in the early 1850s. However, the more luxurious Exchange Hotel was constructed across the street in 1844, and the Eagle Hotel failed to see the same increase in business. The Eagle Hotel managed be profitable by offering cheap rooms to families who recently moved to the region.

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

provided more customers upon its completion, but the hotel nonetheless was forced to convert to a boarding house to stay in business. The building was converted to apartments in the 1940s, retaining small businesses in the storefront until 1982. The Wilmington Area Historical Society purchased the building that year and converted it into a museum. A fire badly damaged the structure in 1990. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1994. As of 2023, the Eagle Hotel is owned by Mark Nielsen.

References

{{reflist Hotel buildings completed in 1838 Hotels established in 1838 National Register of Historic Places in Will County, Illinois Railway hotels in the United States Museums in Will County, Illinois Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois 1838 establishments in Illinois